Parkfield Interventional Earthquake Fieldwork

The Parkfield Interventional EQ Fieldwork (PIEQF) by artist D.V. Rogers was a geologically interactive, kinetic earthwork that was temporarily installed in the remote township of Parkfield, Central California. This machine controlled earthwork ran autonomously for 91 days between the 18th August and 16th November 2008. PIEQF was triggered by near real-time reported Californian earthquakes from Magnitude M 0.1 and above.

PIEQF shake table, image courtesy D.V. Rogers

This conceptual machine earthwork was a feedback loop between the seismicity of California and a physical and mechanical representation of all Californian seismic events. Each time a Californian earthquake occurred, an array of 5/8 inch steel rods attached to an earthquake shake table oscillated and resonated reflecting the dynamic nature of the Californian landscape. On average 30-60 seismic events occur throughout California daily.

Stock, developer at V2_Lab, contributed to this project with the implementation of the Seismic Data Stream Pipe, a software tool that searches the database of earthquakes in California and relays that information into the shake table.

The PIEQF installation was dismantled on the 16th of November, but documentation is still available on the PIEQF blog.